Morning Current Affairs: 19 December 2017

BJP wins clear majority in Gujarat for sixth straight term
After an initial few hours of nail-biting suspense, the verdict for Gujarat is clear- the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) has secured its sixth-straight term in the state.

Out of the total 182 seats, the party won 99 seats, seven more than the mark of absolute majority, while the Congress won 77 seats. Besides this,  the  Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won one seat, Bharatiya Tribal Party won 2 seats and three independent candidates also won the people’s mandate.

Though the victory was predicted for BJP, what was not expected was the huge turn around for Congress. There were times in the initial phase of counting when BJP was trailing behind Congress.

In fact, the state’s current CM Vijay Rupani himself, was trailing initially, only to gain a lead and finally mark his victory over the Rajkot West seat, defeating Senior Congress leader Indranil Rajyaguru by a margin of 54,300 votes.

This year, it is the turn of BJP to rule hilly Himachal Pradesh
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on 18 December 2017 won Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly Elections 2017 by sweeping 44 of Himachal Pradesh's 68 seats. While, rival party Congress got its hands on 21 seats in the state. A party needs 35 seats or more to form the government in Himachal.

However, BJP's chief ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal faced defeat in the elections for the Sujanpur Assembly. He lost to Congress rival Rajinder Singh Rana by about 3500 votes.

CPI(M) party could only win a single seat. CPI(M) State Secretary Rakesh Singha won by a margin of 1983 votes over BJP’s Rakesh Verma in Theog.

The counting of votes for assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh began at 42 centres on 18 December 2017 for all 68 assembly seats. The counting was supervised by 68 returning officers, one in every constituency.

Post Demonetisation, Rs 7961 crore undisclosed income unearthed
Since the demonestisation in November 2017, the Income-Tax Department has found undisclosed income of Rs 7961 crore till March 2017.

Following searches conducted on around 900 groups during the demonetisation phase, income-tax officials seized assets worth over Rs 900 crore.

Besides, as per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) information, after the ban on high-value currency notes, Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) of Rs 18.70-crore worth were seized by state police forces till 30 November 2017.